


A Scientist and His Chaotic Cat from Another Dimension

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, compiling another list of one-shots because I wrote too many, rated T for teen because Esper sometimes can't stay clean, what Esper receives - struggles, what Esper wants - cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28793982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: Sometimes, meeting one's other self means to stop questioning the laws of physics and make new laws instead. Life has never been simple since Diabolic Esper entered Mastermind's life. A compilation of one-shots about Mastermind and Diabolic Esper.
Relationships: Edward "Add" Grenore/Edward "Add" Grenore, Mad Paradox/Dominator, Mastermind/Diabolic Esper
Kudos: 2





	1. Redo

**Author's Note:**

> Mastermind and Diabolic Esper narrowly avoid death after a fight. Originally posted on tumblr.

His vision went red like the flames around them when it happened. The fine hairs on his skin stood up when he tried to wipe the blood away from his eyes. There wasn’t time for Esper to even register the pain when his face went hot like it was on fire. 

Esper opened his mouth to screech out an inhuman cry, magenta eyes blaring across his red face. The divine beast was taller than him, even if he and his counterparts were to stand on top of each other’s shoulders. It lunged its body across the platform to where Esper was, causing the ground to tilt to one side from the shift in weight. Esper leaped onto the beast’s shoulder to launch himself into the air and through a portal he had opened. Out from the portal, he landed to the opposite side of where Ifritan was, only looking to the side to see a wide eyed Mastermind looking at him with alarm.

The time traveler almost laughed by impulse when he saw Mastermind’s face. His counterpart looked surprised, shocked to see Esper still fighting even when his face was torn open with claw marks and smeared with what looked to be a mix of the his and the beast’s blood. The potions helped some, but didn’t stop the blood from gushing out of the pores of his face. Ever fiber in his skin was on fire, burning from the intensity of being mauled by a creature that once protected Lanox.

Esper’s face and body screamed in pain, his clothes torn by claws and flames, but he opened a portal above Ifritan to redirect the flames the beast was hurling at his direction. Burning metal and ceiling pieces broke and fell on top the roaring creature. Mastermind jumped in to have one of his drones pelt away the beast’s claws before pushing it off the edge of the platform with a Panzer Buster, sending Ifritan to sink into the melting lava. 

That wouldn’t kill the beast, for it was a divine being, but that was the last thing on Esper’s mind. The damn thing could suffer in hell for all he cared, he disregarded it when he tiredly stood from his place with shaking hands. 

His vision was growing hazy from a combination of the room becoming increasingly hotter from the lava and flames, his head growing dizzy even as he had one hand on his head. He hoped that his wounds weren’t as severe as they felt because he wasn’t sure how long he could maintain his consciousness at this rate. 

The room then shook, causing the already unstable platform to tilt to one side, making Esper lose his balance and fell on his bottom. Soon, everything happened too quickly because all he could recall was Mastermind yelling his name before he looked up to see falling rocks and debris crashing onto them.

* * *

His nostrils flared when he woke up to the scent of something sharp and putrid, the too familiar smell of burning flesh. Despite being accustomed to it, Esper still pinched his nose and felt like throwing up when he opened his eyes.

It hurt to open his eyes and he didn’t want to wake up. His senses were dull from what felt like a long nap, his limbs aching when he stretched them. Eyes still closed, Esper laid still on his back, wondering what happened. All he could remember was the roaring sound of the collapsing temple and Mastermind’s cries. 

He weakly leaned his head to one side to see that the ground was the familiar texture of red stone the temple and much of Lanox used for their buildings. They were at a resting spot not too far from town. Thousands of stars shone against the dark velvet sky with the moon hovering above him. The ground was warm when he lifted his head up and used his hands to sit up to feel the dry wind blow through like a pleasant breeze. 

The memories then snapped back to the last few moments before Esper was knocked out. The building was crumbling and there wasn’t much time to run to the nearest exit. Still in a daze from the fight, there wasn’t much time to think when the ceiling disintegrated. Esper whispered the incantation as easily as he could breathe. He casted Seal of Time over Mastermind and himself before the scientist threw himself over his body as the debris crashed onto them. 

Next to him was Mastermind, who had his head rested on the rough ground and rested his body on one side. Bandages decorated Mastermind’s chest and covered around his elbows and wrists. Mastermind kept himself close to Esper, his arm wrapped around Esper’s shoulder, a protective gesture that left the time traveler troubled and perplexed. 

“What happened?”

Mastermind’s voice made Esper jerk his head to the side in surprised to see that the other was conscious. His hair was pulled out of its usual ponytail, tangled in knots and caked with dried blood that fell out when Esper ran his hand through the long strands. The scientist’s clothes were torn with claw marks and dark red stains decorated the once pristine white jacket he loved to wear. His eyes were livid and looked at Esper with panic when they made eye contact. 

“You died. Well, you would have if I didn’t use Seal of Time, but I saved you, so you didn’t actually die~” Esper said with a bright smile that wasn’t returned by his counterpart. He crawled over to hold the Mastermind close and nuzzled into his jacket. 

Mastermind looked surprised, his eyebrows raising before falling back down to scrunch in confusion. He blinked and frowned while processing the information, his eyes scanning over Esper with a difficult to read expression. Was there something wrong? 

Esper looked down at his hands, which were wrapped in layers of bandages, but blood was already seeping through and making it transparent with black. His jacket, top, and gloves had been thrown aside to make room for more bandages applied to his upper body. His arms looked normal enough, although they felt funny when he tried to move them. It ached when he sat up with his ribcage poking painfully through his thin figure. A fresh scar formed at his stomach area, already lost among the sea of marks and blemishes layered on top of each other.

“You shouldn’t rely on Seal of Time so much,” Mastermind said quietly. 

“Oh? You don’t want to live?” The time traveler took hold of Mastermind’s wrists and said with a jarring sweet smile. “I can fix that for you~”

He laughed at Mastermind’s instantaneous reaction of swiping his arms away and looking at Esper with some horror and disgust. Esper thought he heard the scientist grumbling, “Are you mad?” and shook his head with a deep sigh and twisted a stray strand of his hair between his fingers. If Mastermind kept up with the sighs, he was going to start leaving loose strands of hair everywhere from constantly pulling on them. 

Esper blinked in surprise when he was suddenly pulled into a tight hug. 

“How many more times will you ‘die’ before you truly do?” Mastermind’s eyes flickered with worry, wrapping his arms around his neck. “Thank Els you’re safe though.” 

The question made his blood run cold. Of course he had asked himself that question before, but it was a topic he preferred to avoid thinking about, a question that kept him awake many nights after he discovered how to use Seal of Time. What was death if he merely dodged it on a daily basis as casually as snapping his fingers? If Mastermind’s question bothered him, he didn’t allow the scientist to see it. Esper forced a smile that wasn’t fooling his counterpart. 

Esper would be lying if he said he wasn’t unnerved to see Mastermind getting emotional like this. It wasn’t the first time he used Seal of Time on Mastermind or himself, so he was confused on why Mastermind was overreacting now. Did his physical state concern the scientist that much? 

While he was baffled to get that sort of reaction out of Mastermind, he couldn’t help but feel a strange warmth in his heart. Someone cared about him. To be frank, it embarrassed Esper to realize that he was important to someone. 

“I-I’m glad you’re okay too.” Esper stumbled over his words. He buried his face in Mastermind’s shoulder with embarrassment and enjoyed the peaceful silence in the scientist’s embrace.


	2. Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diabolic Esper won’t stop annoying Mastermind. An excuse to write about Esper’s tails being able to move on their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

At first, Mastermind thought it was his imagination. Maybe it was Esper or Psyker trying to bug him again. Mastermind sighed when he brought his attention back to his work. Why did he even think it was a good idea to let Esper be in the same room as him if it was obvious that Esper couldn’t stop bugging him? He didn’t want to deal with Esper and his shenanigans.

Letting Esper into his room was like letting a child into a candy shop: excited and filled with compulsiveness. Esper liked to touch his equipment and feign ignorance on what each of them did, he enjoyed watching Mastermind’s patience grew thin. Esper was surprisingly on his best behavior today because not once had he asked Mastermind any stupid questions or tried fiddling with his stuff without asking. The most Mastermind received from him were the occasional glances while he was working on his latest research.

Mastermind was inputting his latest data when he felt something poke him by the back. It was more of a jab really. The jab was sudden and made Mastermind straighten up his back in response. The most bizarre thing was that he knew it was Esper who was poking him, likely because Mastermind did something similar to him the other day, but still…

When Mastermind turned his head to glare at Esper, the other gave him a wide grin, holding up his hands to show that he was guilt free. Esper was sitting too far for his arms to reach Mastermind. How did Esper do it? Mastermind never caught Esper probing him by the finger. He was in the middle of checking something when he felt something pointy poke him on the sides again.

“Esper, what do you w-?” Mastermind batted his hand away in annoyance.

Mastermind flinched when he turned to see Esper’s um…tails, poking him to the side. He knew Esper’s tails could move on their own, but he didn’t know that Esper could control them. What were those tails even made of? They were metallic but, oh never mind, it hardly mattered. Mastermind was puzzled, if not shocked, that it was Esper’s tails that were poking him the whole time. The metallic tails playfully poked him by the cheek when Mastermind finally noticed them.

“Are you done yet?” Esper whined, cackling when he sensed Mastermind’s discomfort in being probed by the metallic tails.

“No.” Mastermind tried not to act like he was bothered by Esper’s presence. Again, why did he let Esper into his room? Oh, right, because he gave up locking his door after finding out that it encouraged Psyker and Esper to break into his room. Although it did reduce the chances of them breaking his door, that meant they could walk into his room whenever they liked, much to Mastermind’s displeasure.

He thought Esper would leave him alone after that brief conversation was finished. Silence settled back into the room, leaving Mastermind a few minutes to go back to whatever he was doing. He nearly lost a blood vessel when Esper bugged him again. The Diabolic Esper had his tails gently nudging the side of his cheek again.

Mastermind turned to see Esper still grinning at his direction. It was better than seeing Esper in despair or in an uncontrolled rage, but it was hard to tell if seeing Esper with that creepy smile was any better. At least he wasn’t destroying things, but it was still unnerving to see something so insincere.

“You should smile~” Esper continue nudging the right side of Mastermind’s cheek.

Mastermind wanted to scoff at the strange efforts Esper was willing to put into for such a petty reason. A smile, really. Esper could always look at Psyker if he wanted to see someone smile. Psyker smiled enough for two people. They were all the same person, so it counted, right?

“How annoying,” Mastermind mumbled. 

He gave Esper an unimpressed look, but surprised that Esper cared about something like that. At least…until he heard Esper get up from his seat. Esper snuck up behind Mastermind and wrapped his arms around him and forced Mastermind’s lips upward with his fingers. Esper squeaked when Mastermind opened his mouth in attempt to snap at Esper’s fingers.

This sent Esper running out of the room with an obnoxious guffaw while being chased by one of Mastermind’s drones. They ran past Psyker when Mastermind nearly caught Esper by the tail with one of his attacks. Psyker saw them and shook his head in amusement. 


	3. Carnation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is something familiar about this place. Mastermind lays on the grass as Diabolic Esper plays with his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

It smelled like home. A whiff of fresh pine leaves drifting in the breeze, picking up his hair when Mastermind sat with his legs crossed in a meadow, not unlike the one that surrounded his childhood home. The sharp smell mixed with a softer fragrance from the wildflowers when he pulled it from the soil with a softened expression. The scientist closed his eyes in deep concentration, his cheeks getting warm. 

He was getting teary over weed, how funny. Except there was nothing humorous in recalling memories of running to the mansion’s greenhouse in search for Mother after being reprimanded by Father. She used to let him pick which flowers to put into the vase to place in their otherwise quiet home.

That was all in the past. The wet grass tickled his nose when Mastermind shook his head from the thought, yet another invasive thought arising from the depths of his mind. What was he doing pondering on what happened in the past when he was here 300 years into the future?

“You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

A soft chuckle had Mastermind flutter his eyes open to meet matching magenta eyes staring down from above. Thin arms, boney ones with dark veins visible pinned his down, but there was no fear when the scientist gazed at Esper’s pale face. Plated armor covered the time traveler’s torso, his body curled up against Mastermind with a peaceful expression filled with wonder and bemusement as he plucked a ladybug from his hair. 

“You’re getting bugs in your hair,” Esper brushed his fingers through the scientist’s curls before running through it again to straighten it.

“And who’s fault is that?” Mastermind laughed and sat up to shake the grass out of his hair.

As he took Esper’s hands, his heart fluttered in discovery how warm the time traveler’s hands were today. Tugging on a wild flower to his right, Mastermind gently pulled it out, careful to avoid damaging the roots as Mother once taught him. There were more, all of them going into Esper’s opened hands.

It became clear why his late mother appreciated surrounding herself with flowers. Flowers brought them momentary serenity and pleasantness that made it easy to forget about how they were in the middle of a war with demons. 

“Would you believe me if I said I’m glad you fell on top of me the first time we met?” Mastermind mused.

If not for his counterpart, he couldn’t imagine finding a compelling reason to tread outside his lab for reasons outside of research. He prided himself for being pragmatic, but it was also a weakness. Not that he wanted to admit that. No, but he had enough heart to admit to himself that meeting Esper and Psyker brought out the best in him, sometimes the worse. He liked to think it was more of the former. 

Esper held the flowers close, “I didn’t remember that when you screamed at me for getting your clothes dirty.”

Mastermind chuckled, “In my defense, you made me lose my data.”

He had long forgotten why he made a big deal of it back then, but he didn’t forget how he felt when he first learned about alternative dimensions. Well…with Henir’s existence, it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was still a shock to have it be confirmed by someone, his counterpart, no less. It was a wild concept, but one that opened his mind up to the possibilities that unfortunately would never be answered because Esper was adamant on keeping him away from time and dimensional jumping.

Mastermind frowned when the hair tie for his ponytail slipped down from rolling around in the grass. His hair was becoming a hassle with how much it has grown for the past few years, sometimes tangled from sleeping in less than comfortable positions from all-nighters. He was going to have to get it trimmed again when he got home. 

“Let me help,” Esper offered.

Esper’s hands were delicate, pushing Mastermind’s side bangs back to fall past his shoulders. The time traveler produced a brush from his bag to run through with his fingers, shaking off a knot he found before straightening it again. He tugged against the hair in repetition, careful not to yank Mastermind’s roots in avoiding an angered scientist.

It was difficult to explain the floating feeling he had when Esper ran the bristles over his scalp, even relaxing his shoulders and gazing at the tree across from them with a distant look in his eyes. The trees and flowers here weren’t unlike the ones around the mansion he was raised in. Could this be where the mansion once stood? It was burned to the ground by those people, so he didn’t expect to see remnants of the building left. Or was he grasping at straws and hoping to form a personal connection to explain the feeling of uneasiness when Esper stopped brushing?

Mastermind opened his mouth to ask why Esper stopped, but pressed his lips together. There was something in his hair. 

“Tada~” Esper placed something on top of Mastermind’s head. 

With a hair tie in one hand, Esper divided his hair into three ends, pulling them over one another into a loose braid. Mastermind gasped in surprise when he placed his hand on his head to feel the hair pins keeping his hair in place, but there was something else.

From the flowers Mastermind gave him before, Esper had the stems intertwined into knots and looped into a braid, pink and orange gerberas with clovers and weed woven into a crown of flowers.

When he saw his reflection in the mirror from his bag, Mastermind was in awe. There were flowers braided in his hair. They clung to his hair, their small petals spread out like the sun hanging overhead. Their sweet smell perfumed his skin and had the scientist look at them in awe. All of this was Esper’s doing? 

“You remember how to make them?” Mastermind asked. “That was a long time ago.”

When Mother taught them how to hook them together to form into a crown. A childish activity, but Mastermind loved how she let him practice on her hair, weaving the green stems through her soft hair. They weren’t as neat and pretty as her flower crowns, but she praised him anyway and brought them home, later teaching him how to press them to become bookmarks. It was one of the many memories with her that made the scientist sometimes miss the past, even if he tried to move on.

“This place,” Mastermind’s voice drifted away. “Is this home?” 

Esper nodded, “It looks different than the day we left, doesn’t it?”

So it _was_ their former home. There was nothing left of it, not that he expected much. The mansion was already burnt to the ground and with additional fires arising because of the demon invasion, it would have been a miracle if anything from 300 years ago survived. There wasn’t even rotting wood or remnants of the buildings to suggest that where they stood was once home to a family of three. 

“We can go home if want,” Esper said when Mastermind didn’t respond. “I know this place didn’t hold the happiest memories…”

Mastermind closed his eyes, squeezing Esper’s hand with a firm grip. 

“You’re my happiest memory.”

Esper froze, but relaxed when he felt Mastermind’s touch, letting the scientist lean over to rest his head on his shoulder. Without his gloves, Esper’s hands were soft and smooth, sunlight shining through his skin to show black veins running through them. He almost lost his words when Mastermind kissed the tip of his hands before tucking in a flower behind Esper’s ear, a red carnation. 

The time traveler gave a weak laugh, as if he couldn’t believe Mastermind. Hiding his eyes behind his long bangs, he said with a reddened face, “Is that so?” 

Mastermind only smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pink Gerbera - admiration, adoration or high esteem  
> Orange Gerbera - sunshine and happiness  
> Red Carnation - deep love and admiration


	4. Nya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Adds are cats, but not all cats are Adds. Collab writing with [dezimaton!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dezimaton/pseuds/dezimaton)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

“Maaaaaasterminddddddddddd~”

A cheerful voice sings from the hallway.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are-”

A man clad in pure white sits up from the dim computer screen and parts scattered over the desk before dragging a gloved hand down his face. Masi groans. Even without seeing the jerk, the scientist already knows who it is. There’s only one person in the house that would try to beckon him in such an ominous manner.

The intruder’s violet gloved hands curl themselves around the door frame to the scientist’s dimly lit room and Esper’s face peers through the open slit not long after, eyes narrowed deviously and mouth turned up in a grin. Masi turns his head to glare literal daggers at him.

“I’m busy, Go away Esper.”

“Yikes, and the cat hisses,” he giggles when Masi snaps at him. 

“I’m not a cat,” Masi growls, rubbing his temples in the dark room with tired eyes. He covers his desk with his arms despite Esper unable to see from where he was. 

“I told you not to come into my room unless you ask,” Masi whines. Today is not a day he wants to put up with nonsense from his alternates, especially Esper.

“Aww, why not?” Esper pouts.

“You’ve been up here all week, only coming down for coffee and energy bars. And you complain about MY bad diet.”

“It’s about time you come down and take care of yourself!” Esper pushes the door open just a bit more, almost enough for him to slip through.

A violet beam of light hits the wall right next to the time traveler’s head, missing by mere centimeters. The charred spot on the wall hisses with a curl of smoke.

Masi’s expression is stone cold. “Get out. I won’t miss next time.”

Esper cooes, “Oh, resorting to violence now are w-?”

The time traveler doesn’t get to finish. He’s thrown backwards against the wall by a solid shot to the gut.

The lock to the door clicks shut and Esper is left scratching his head as he sits up on the hall floor.

“Huh.”

Is it something he said? Esper cocks his head to the side with a lopsided grin. A caffeinated Masi hiding in his room is a formidable opponent, but Esper hasn’t forgotten all the Masterminds he’s met and this one is not so different from the others. 

He opens a portal from a hidden part of Masi’s room, in the corner where his outlets are, where the scientist can’t reach him. As he pulls his arm through, something pushes him back. His hands are deflected back into the portal by a powerful force field. Weird, this is the first time he’s been deflected without being physically shoved back by Mastermind’s own noodly hands.

The time traveler decides to try again, this time from a blind spot next to the scientist’s desk. Peeking his head through the freshly opened portal, Esper’s ahoge surfaces from the swirling vortex of energy. When enough of his head is poking through to see, he sees the culprit for his failures. Apocalypse swoops in and pressures him back into the portal, sitting on him with unnatural weight for a cube made of light. Esper pulls out as fast as he opened the portal and shakes his head. Masi really did think of everything. The cat cube leers at Esper and hisses at the time traveler through the open portal, charging up its lasers as he is forced to close that portal too. 

Well, that didn’t end well. 

Esper will admit, Masi wins this round. The time traveler crawls to the kitchen and reaches for the fridge for leftover dinner from last night while he retreats to plan his next course of action. Balancing himself on the kitchen counter with the platter of food on the other, he opens a portal and pulls his head inside with a light giggle. Masi can ignore him all he wants, but Esper knows his one weakness. 

Another portal forms adjacent to the first one, this time the time traveler opening it up in the most hidden spot in Masi’s room: under the bed where he himself cannot fit. The portal isn’t meant for him though. With a devious smile, he connects the two portals together and the kitchen rumbles from the cacophony of meows. If he can’t talk to Masi himself, then he’ll just have to send a couple messengers. The first stray cat wanders astray and nuzzles his crossed legs on the counter.. As much as he wants to keep the kitty, it’s not what Esper planned for. He shooes it through the other portal to where Masi is and waits.

A second cat pokes through the first portal before a third and fourth all peek through the opening. Esper’s grin widens.

* * *

Masi huffs as he puts the final touches on his invention, sitting on the desk before him. Using delicate fingers, he turns the final screw into its spot.

It’s been a long couple of days toiling over the device, but it is worth it. The mechanism works better than he even dreamed and he triumphantly tucks it away in a colorful box that’s been sitting to the side.

The scientist exhales a sigh of relief and relaxes back into his chair.

He’s about to pass the fuck out when he feels something brush against his foot. Masi doesn’t bother checking, only makes a beckoning hand motion to the charging station.

“Enough roaming, Apo. You’ve done well to keep Esper away, so take a good long rest.”

Apo chirps cheerfully behind him and nuzzles him before floating over to the aforementioned charging station, spinning a little over the spot before settling down, as though stamping out its bed before sleeping.

A thought strikes the tired scientist. If Apo is behind him, what’s at his legs?

The tickly brushing feeling comes again, looping between his crossed legs, slipping by like fluid.

Masi searches his dark room with tired eyes. He almost overlooks the trashed room when he sees a pair of glowing eyes. Blinking at the sight, there are more than just a single set, all crowding around him when he hears… meows? Huh?

He turns on the lights and blinds himself with the sudden light, but the bedroom lamp reveals their forms. Cats scatter across his room, some of them climbing on his desk and others lying on his equipment. One crawls on top of Apo and another nips at his ankle for attention with its cries. What the…

Masi checks his room again to see a small portal finely concealed under his bed, small enough for a cat to fit through. Rushing over to the portal, he didn’t make it in time when he tries to fit his hand through and is forced to pull it out when it threatened to eat his hand. Was this his doing?

Feeling the tickling sensation at his legs again, he kneels down to see a calico playing with his socks and picks it up to have it still bat its paws at him. Looking back at the chaotic scene of cats playing and lying around him, Masi is too tired to bother scolding at them for hiding in places like the closet or his drawer. The bed is occupied with a tortoise shell and a brown tabby curled up at his pillow, but he could care less because his sleep deprivation is getting to him. The calico in his hands leaps out and joins him when he passes out the moment his head hits the pillows.

The sleep is the best he’s had in a long time, the bedroom filled with the soft snores of the scientist and the literal army of cats there with him.

When the sun rises, a stray beam of sunlight lights Masi’s face. He is so warm and snug, he almost doesn’t want to move. Although today is the day he’s been waiting for, so he can’t just sleep all day as his body wishes.

The scientist stretches out, disturbing a couple cats from their spots as he rouses. They really are everywhere. No matter how he moves, there’s always a cat in the way.

When the scientist finally tries to move off the bed, he realizes there’s a weight at his side, far heavier than a single cat could be.

Masi blinks his sleep laden eyes into focus.

Oh.

O h.

Two lanky arms are loosely wrapped around his midriff, belonging to none other than the wayward time traveler. Still asleep, Esper’s chest rises and falls to a peaceful rhythm.

His bangs tousled over his relaxed face, the time traveler looks calm and unlike anything when he is awake. Masi thinks he’s cute and almost forgets that this is the asshole who released literally 50 cats into his room because he couldn’t enter.

Masi feels like he should be shocked, but they’ve been living together enough that Esper’s time and space travel BS is the norm. Without Apo to deflect him, the locked room might as well be an open door.

Masi settles back in the nest of cats on his bed and reaches forward a hand to adjust Esper’s bangs. They’re soft and light, but the bangs slip back over his face almost immediately after, as though they belong over his face.

He startles back when Esper moves and his eyes flutter open. 

“Morning, Masi.” Esper rolls his head to plant his face into a pillow and muffles, “Did you like my presents?”

Presents… Mastermind rises from the bed when he remembers. The box sitting at his desk is still there, luckily not knocked over by a cat while he was sleeping. He grabs the box and makes it back to the bed to a confused Esper, still rubbing his eyes from last night’s sleep. 

“Prepared a present for you too,” Mastermind breathes. It’s hard not to be distracted by the stray hair sticking out on Esper’s hair like a porcupine, so he looks down at the box to distract himself. “I finished it last night.” 

Esper stares, but takes the gift to pull the tissue paper out like handkerchiefs. At the bottom of the box is a set of headphones with pointy cat ears on the side with purple outlines that glow when hooked up. It is nothing like what Mastermind typically works on. Unlike the combat upgrades and near infinite list of sleek devices, this one is very cute. When he tries them on, they perk up to follow his emotions and Esper looks down in an attempt to hide the blush creeping across his face. It’s hard to stop the heat from traveling up to his neck and cheeks, his ears too. 

When Esper finally gathers the courage to look up at Masi, he notes the flush on the scientist’s face matching his own. Masi has a gloved hand covering his mouth, just barely containing himself.

“Cute…” The scientist mumbles absently.

The headphone ears stand up straight and Esper’s blush deepens. “Th- Thank you. They’re… very… cute.”

The three tails flicking back and forth behind Esper don’t escape Masi’s notice. It seems to be a subconscious action seeing as Esper doesn’t seem to be controlling them, face flushed and very much admiring the cute cat earphones. The bright smile on Esper’s face as he fingers the soft felt-like material lining the ears makes all his sleepless nights worth it.

Mastermind is shaken out of his thoughts when the time traveler turns his attention to him, eyes narrowing and the ears flattening down a bit to suit his now devious expression.

Esper drawls, “Your gift is purrfect~ As for mines, which one is your favorite?”

Masi takes a moment to glance around at all the cats in the room, some of them curled up on the bed and others dancing around his tables and equipment.

Esper watches as the scientist’s gaze dances from one cat to another, weighing each of their merits and cuteness factor. After looking at all cats in view, Masi turns back to the time traveler curled up against his waist.

Masi’s lips curl up in a smirk. “You, of course.”

Esper’s eyes open in surprise and the mechanical ears on his head perk up.

The scientist reaches a hand up to comb through the time traveler’s messy hair and smiles when the cat ears twitch happily with his strokes. Esper blushes and closes his eyes when he rests his head on Masi’s chest as his alternate continues to pat him, almost purring against the scientist’s chest. A soft blush dusts Masi’s face because the ears on Esper are just… too cute… like they were meant to be.

Esper nuzzles his face into the scientist’s chest, “You’re my favorite cat too, Masi!”

Mastermind gasps. “I’m no-”

The scientist cuts himself short. After clearing his throat, he blushes and responds with a soft. “Thanks, Esper.”

Esper beams.


	5. Late

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Early Christmas morning brings Esper lots of surprises when he sneaks downstairs to place his gift under the tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

At last, the hallway lights dimmed with the sound of curtains lowering. Apocalypse’s meows echoed through the house, illuminating the dark room before it too went to sleep mode with the sound of a small beep. It was late when Esper snuck downstairs to see that no one was there. He wanted to avoid making any noise with his portals, resulting in him taking careful steps to avoid being noticed.

In his hand was a present. He was careful not to tilt it, afraid that it would shake the contents inside. It was a small box that didn’t weigh much, covered in purple wrapping paper with cat patterns.

The only source of light was the Christmas tree with lights and ornaments hanging off its branches. It wasn’t a big tree, but it was enough to make an impression when one stepped into the living room to see it sitting beside the piano in the corner. It was worth putting up with Mastermind’s complaining at the tree poking out of a portal when Esper struggled to place it on the tree stand.

Esper tiptoed across the living room when he heard the sound of someone typing on a keyboard. He checked to see a set of holograms projected around the sofa, the screen dimmed down so much that he thought it was part of the Christmas lights. Lying on the sofa, under a big blanket and a bunch of pillows, was a white haired man with his hair spread out in a tangled mess.

If it wasn’t for his eyes, Esper would have thought the other was asleep. Mastermind’s breathing was slow and relaxed. His eyes were glued to the screens and he mumbled what must be his work underneath his breath when Esper passed by, hoping the researcher wouldn’t hear him.

The wood creaked when Esper walked to where the tree was. He covered his mouth to stop himself from gasping, but the damage was already done. Mastermind sat up and turned to catch sight of Esper clutching onto the present with eyes widened, akin to a deer in the lights.

Mastermind was surprised, his mouth forming an o-shape when he saw who it was. He set down his dynamo and ordered them into sleep mode before reaching over to turn on the lights. Both of them squinted at the sudden brightness flooding the room.

It was hard to adjust to the blinding light. Esper wiped his eyes and wondered why his counterpart couldn’t increase the brightness of his computer instead? When he looked at Mastermind questioningly , he saw the other clutching onto a ball of yarn with knitting needles in the opposite hand. Sitting on Mastermind’s lap was a mess of white yarn knit into a long rectangular sheet with triangles formed at the top. Were those cat ears?

“You’re up late.” Mastermind breathed and set his stuff aside to talk to him. 

Esper snorted, “You are too.”

He squeaked when Mastermind ruffled his hair with a soft smile. “What’s that?” Mastermind asked, pointing at the gift in Esper’s hands as he shoved the mess of yarn under his blanket, but stopped when he caught Esper looking at it.

Esper hugged the box and looked away, “For you.”

Mastermind looked at him in shock, but accepted the gift when it was handed over to him . Esper worried when Mastermind kept staring at the gift and didn’t respond, even when he called his name. Mastermind threw Esper a guilty expression and held up his rectangular yarn sheet for show.

“The scarf was supposed to be done by tomorrow morning,” Mastermind admitted, his cheeks turning light pink. “It’s getting cold and you don’t own much.”

When he looked at it again, Esper saw how it was supposed to be a scarf. It was only halfway done, but it looked as warm as his face felt at the moment. Esper gave an awkward laugh to cover up his embarrassment at the realization. “Ears?” He poked the white triangular tips at the end of Mastermind’s work.

“Shut up,” Mastermind huffed. “If you don’t like them, I can take them off.”

“No, they’re cute.” Esper chuckled and gestured to the box still in Mastermind’s hand, “Open it.” Why not? They were already down here, so it wouldn’t hurt to open it. It was just hours away until the sun would rise, no harm done, right?

“I was getting to it,” Mastermind quipped, but a smile betrayed him. He unraveled the ribbon and tossed it in Esper’s direction with a grin.

He opened the box to see a white paper bag tied with more ribbon. Mastermind tilted his head as if annoyed of having to go through the trouble of opening yet another set of packaging.

He tugged on the ribbon to untie the bag to reveal chocolate truffles and other sweets inside. Cookies and macaroons assorted in multitudes of colors, sprinkles, and frosting in the shape of stars and angels. It was enough to feed him, Mastermind, and Psyker, who was still asleep as they sat in the living room opening gifts.

Esper was proud to say that he chose the ones he knew Mastermind would like, especially the squares with white chocolate and raspberry glaze inside. The cookies were made by Ciel, whom he spent days convincing the butler by running errands for the half demon.

“I didn’t finish your gift…” Mastermind said with shame and hung his head.

“Just give it to me when you’re done!” Esper beamed at the flustered scientist and grabbed the half finished scarf from his lap. He took out the last gift from the bag and placed it on Mastermind’s head. It was a headband with white cat ears. The time traveling showed Mastermind a pair of his own - black cat ears with white tips and giggled, “Now we match~”

His counterpart smacked his forehead with his palm.“You’re ridiculous.” He groaned, but he didn’t object and smiled at Esper, placing the chocolate on the table to hug the other. 


	6. Cuddle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mastermind finds someone occupying his spot in the living room on a chilly winter night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

Mastermind let out a happy sigh when his back hit the couch and covered himself with blankets. It was woven with a tacky design of a Christmas tree and a pair of reindeer tap dancing around it in cozy hats, but he wasn’t going to complain when it kept him from shivering while reading a book. His head rested on the armrest, eyes every so often wavering to close for a few seconds, maybe a few minutes. 

After waking up to make a cup of coffee and run scans on his newest project, the rest of the day ran like a blur with the scientist only aware of time because he had to stop for meals. It was a rare moment of peace for Mastermind lie down without having to worry if he left the stove on or if he needed to finish a project by the next day. There was no need for every fiber of his being to be productive and he wondered didn’t he discover this feeling sooner. 

Music played from Dynamo as he turned a page and smiled. Underneath the warm blankets, his chest rose with each even breath. He was the sole occupant of the room and he was planning on taking full advantage of it before his counterparts come in to bother him for something stupid.

“Oh, Add~”

Shit.

Instead of using the door like a normal person, Esper slipped into the house through a portal with his head sticking out, waving at Mastermind with a razor sharp toothed smile. The time traveler ignored Mastermind glaring at him for tossing his winter jacket onto the coffee table. Dynamo shook in response to their owner’s excitement to see Mastermind with Esper sliding over to plop himself next to the scientist on the couch.

Mastermind sat up with a straight back when Esper held himself close to him. The asshole was hugging him after coming back from outside, in the winter! He gave a side eyed glare at his counterpart, who gave him a cheeky grin in response.

“What do you want?” Mastermind didn’t look up from his book. He was not going to let Esper win this time and steal his attention from his research.

“Lusa’s coming home late,” Esper cupped his hands to his mouth to blow warm air into them and rubbed them for heat. “He said to go ahead and eat leftovers from last night.”

“In a bit,” Mastermind said, only to realize he has been reading the same lines repeatedly. Esper was cold, but at least the blanket was warming them both. He turned to look at Esper sinking into the blankets with his face hidden, “Hey, don’t steal my blanket.”

Esper whined, “You took the warmest one. It’s _freezing_!” Placing his icy hands on Mastermind’s cheeks, he exclaimed, “See?”

Mastermind shot up from his seat and hissed, “Esper, that’s my face!”

The other closed his eyes in happiness and pulled his hands away, “I told you!”

It was so childish. Mastermind had to stop himself from laughing when Esper caught him smiling, feigning a scowl that was falling apart as quickly as King Nasod. Esper giggled when Mastermind threw a pillow at him and missed. His counterpart stole a cushion from behind and hugged it to his stomach.

“Where have you been?” Mastermind asked. 

“Unlike you, some of us have to leave the house sometimes,” Esper snickered. 

“Excuse you, but I do leave the house when I need to.”

Not that he needed to mention that the time traveler rarely left the house either, but Esper knew that and kept his mouth shut when Mastermind gave him a sly grin. With portals, there was no need for Esper to move beyond his room, but he did because he wanted to bother Mastermind and Psyker when the house became too quiet. 

“Go heat up dinner,” Esper mumbled and tugged in the blanket to cover himself.

“Let me rest a bit,” Mastermind closed his book. Looks like he wasn’t going to finish reading the book today either, not when he was busy conversing with his counterpart. “I just finished cleaning that mess Arc made.”

It took him hours to untangle the mess of codes Arc showed him from his notes. Things didn’t help when it turned out that his younger self combined different languages to create his own, albeit a sloppy attempt. But still, it was impressive for what Arc had been doing before he met Mastermind. With time and guidance, it wouldn’t take long before the Arc Tracer suppressed him if he wasn’t careful. Ha, maybe.

“I went shopping for food,” Esper said. Oh, Mastermind saw the bag of groceries beside the coffee table. It was enough to last them for a little over a week, but notice that Esper bought more than usual. “We’re out of eggs again.”

Mastermind hummed in acknowledgement and pressed his forehead against his book with closed eyes. After years of having meals at the inns he stayed at or shopping for himself if he ever bothered to cook, it was nice to rely on others to provide him warm meals (His cooking was superior, of course.). Yet, the effort to push himself away from the comforts of his warm blanket to heat up food already made seemed too cumbersome for the lazy scientist. No, let him nap for a little bit. That seemed like a better idea.

“You bought a lot,” Mastermind said between sleepy yawns. 

“I missed your cookies. Can you make them again?” 

Esper’s question stopped him from drifting to sleep and had him flutter his eyes open again. 

“None of Ciel’s?” Mastermind rose a brow at the idea that his counterpart would fail to mention the half demon butler’s superb baking. It was Ciel who taught him the basics because he wanted to replicate the Dread Lord’s cookies without having to rely on him so much. 

“Yours is sweeter,” Esper said.

“And not as chewy or moist,” Mastermind argued, trying not to smile from the praises or how something in his chest elevated in hearing someone appreciate his baking efforts.

Embarrassed, Mastermind hid under the blankets as he felt his face heat up. He always joked about Esper stealing heat from him and Psyker, but cuddling with the other wasn’t a bad thing. The initiate shock from his counterpart’s cold skin was gone and Esper was quiet. The time traveler curled himself against Mastermind’s body with his head resting on the scientist’s shoulder and his arms wrapped around his waist.

Even without the plug suit he wore for the rest of the year, he could imagine Esper’s tails moving in happiness to Mastermind’s warmth and being with him. Esper was wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, a colleague of bright colors that blinded anyone who stared too long.

Esper’s stomach gurgled. 

“Hungry?” Mastermind asked.

Flustered, Esper buried his face into Mastermind’s shirt, “Sorry.”

Mastermind patted Esper’s shoulder with awkwardness, letting him cling to him before gently prying his hands off so he could get up. He picked up the bag of groceries off the floor to move them to the fridge and the pantry in the kitchen. It wasn’t long when he came back with two bowls of heated food for the two of them when he caught Esper with his blankets wrapped around him like a burrito. He pushed Esper’s jacket aside to place their dinner at the edge of the already crowded table.

Mastermind moved Esper’s jacket off the table to place their dinner, moving his eyes over to Esper’s sleeping form. He shook his head with a small smile, how foolish of him to leave his spot for the other to steal it from him. With a chuckle, Mastermind let the time traveler be and ruffled the top of his hair before taking a seat opposite to Esper to attend his food. He could keep the other bowl warm if Esper woke up and was still hungry. 


	7. Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite how much they changed over time, they were still the same person, right? Mastermind is conflicted over the reappearance of Diabolic Esper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

“You know how to play?” Arc asked when he caught Time sitting on the bench and tapping on the keys. 

He couldn’t blame Time. It was a black upright piano with a gloss that made it shine when they moved it into their apartment shortly after purchasing it. He was more surprised that Time bought it than with the musical instrument itself. It was rare to see Time wanting to buy something since he didn’t own many things. 

“A little,” Time replied. “You?”

Memories of listening to Mother play on a similar looking piano flooded back when he first laid his eyes on it. Arc remembered sitting at the piano with Mother, who leaned over his shoulders to gently correct his fingers while learning to play a couple of simple songs to fill the halls of the quiet mansion. He wondered if that was why Time bought it on impulse. 

“I practice as much as you do,” Arc jested. He doubted that Time had much time to think about something as petty as playing an instrument when he always locked himself in his room mumbling equations to himself. Not like there was time to pick up a hobby playing a musical instrument when it had been years since either of them came into contact with a piano. 

“You should play with me,” Time wasn’t discouraged by the other’s attitude. “It’ll be fun!”

“It’s in your room.”

“You can drop by when you’re done with work!”

It was unusual to find Time so enthusiastic and cheery about something outside of his research. He didn’t understand why, but that didn’t stop a smile from finding its way on his face. 

“Only if you provide the music sheets,” Arc said smiling.

Time laughed, “Like I always give you the blueprints for stuff?”

“And I help you with double checking things?” Arc pulled his arms over Time’s shoulders to reach for the keys to play a few notes. The notes were off and jarring to the ear. “We should get this tuned first.”

Time nodded and opened his mouth to say something, only for his voice to be cut off when he started coughing, pulling his head down and placed a hand over his throat with teary eyes. He rushed over to the bathroom down the hallway to let out a choking noise. Time clutched one hand over the sink for support and stayed there for a few minutes. His shoulders shook when Arc touched his forehead to check his temperature. 

“Did you remember to take the potion Echo gave you?” Arc asked with concern.

Time numbly nodded, unable to say much with heavy breathes. He said in a raspy voice, “It’ll go away soon. It always does.” His laugh was forced, lips spread out too wide to be genuine. The time traveler gripped the glass cylinder too tightly, enough to see his veins sticking out through his pale skin.

“Echo told me someone else went through the same thing, but the medicine she gave me isn’t working any more. I guess the guy before me never progressed far enough for her to consider this.” Time ripped out his eyepatch to reveal his left eye with pitch black sclera. He grinned, but Arc failed to smile back.

“It’s a bad idea to wait,” Time mumbled. “It’s not getting better.”

Time placed his hand on Arc’s shoulder and lifted his chin up to force the researcher to look at him in an attempt to cheer the other up, but it doesn’t. After weeks of seeing Time’s condition worsen, Arc was quick to spot the symptoms of black starting to taint the edges of Time’s other eye. He wanted to ask Time if Echo told him the outcome of the last person that had the same condition, but something told him that it wasn’t a happy ending. 

“Are you leaving?” Arc asked without thinking. He flinched at his poor choice in words, but Time was unphased. Too used to Arc’s bluntness, Time remained composed and continued. 

“To be honest, I thought you would run away the first time I showed this to you.” He pointed to the black sclera, “I guess that’s one of the many things I got wrong.”

Time covered his mouth, but a dark laugh slipped from his lips. Although the time traveler didn’t say it, Arc heard disappointment in the other’s tone. What about his feelings? Did Time know how much it hurt to see him like this? 

“Get some rest,” Arc wanted to stir the other away from the topic. Yeah, Time wasn’t getting any better, but that wasn’t a reality he wanted to face. Not today. He pressed his hand against Time’s back, “I’m sure you’ll feel better tomorrow morning. Maybe we can find a song from the library to try out.” 

“Yeah,” he felt Time’s eyes fall on him again. “That sounds great.”

He didn’t want to point out that Time never answered his question, but at the same time, he was almost grateful that the time traveler didn’t. Time didn’t say anything, but Arc felt like he already knew what the answer would be. 

* * *

It was hard to enter this room. Arc, no, _Mastermind_ used to come in and vacuum the carpeted floor and sometimes rearrange the pens at the desk to see if their owner would notice. It should have been like any other time the owner disappeared for trips to gods know where. Days has flown by since the other left, so he couldn’t stop but wonder if there was a purpose in repeating this routine when he hasn’t heard a word from Time.

When he went to check the desk, there was a thick layer of dust glazed over the wood. He drew a line with one gloved finger and sneezed. How long has it been since he cleaned the room? Judging from all the dust, it had to be several weeks at least. Maybe a few months?

Given that its former occupant has not been home for some time, there wasn’t much to clean, but that didn’t make the job any easier. He found himself twiddling with Time’s pencils again, all of the mechanical pencils and had cute designs with white bunnies and cats as caps. Aside from the dust and dirt, it was like Time never left. Even some of his clothes were left behind in his in closet. Not that Time owned a lot of attire to begin with, but it was something that saddened Mastermind when he was reminded of times past. Without Time sprawling over his bed with scattered pages and pencils around him, the room felt soulless. 

_It won’t take long,_ Time promised back then. _I’ll be back soon. Traveling far enough into the past to find a way to stop it,_ he argued. 

Mastermind closed his eyes tight in response to the memory, his breath grew faint as he placed his hand on his forehead. What was Time thinking? Time traveling was what caused the toxins to appear in his blood. He should have been more stubborn and stopped his counterpart from leaving. Was he a fool to believe that Time would come back? 

Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye when he finished cleaning the desk to move onto another part of the room. Sitting in the corner of the room, next to the closet on the opposite side of the bed was the upright piano. Its age really showed when Mastermind walked over to see that dust had reached in between the joints and even on the seat cushion. He opened the fallboard and removed the velvet like cloth from the keyboard. Dust accumulated in between the black and white keys, some of it smudged on his hands when he tapped on a few keys. He started to play a few chords when there was a loud crash from the front porch. 

Mastermind abruptly stood up and ran over to the window to lean over to see what it was. Lying in front of the house was a tall man in a black armored suit with white hair flopped over his face. Black tar oozed around the man when Mastermind approached him with caution. Flipping the stranger over to reveal that his stomach was the source of the black tar, the researcher stared at the familiar face, with eyes like the night. 

“Time?” Mastermind voice cracked.

“I found you,” his voice croaked and he reached out to him. 

* * *

It was like having a stranger in the house. Time’s room remained to cleaned, so the time traveler occupied the couch in the living room. Even though he was there, his presence unnerved Mastermind. He was too quiet, didn’t say much except for a few words when needed. 

“What happened?” Mastermind asked. 

“I failed again,” he said. “In the end, I couldn’t go back to the right time.”

He turned away when Mastermind tried to talk to him, refusing to show his face and covered his mouth with the blanket from his lap. His eyes no longer had black sclera and Mastermind had helped him change his clothes into a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. On the coffee table in front of him sat a tray of food, much of it untouched. He finished the grapes set aside in a small bowl, and nibbled on a biscuit with care, but the soup was going to get cold if he didn’t eat it.

“Time…” Mastermind touched his shoulder, but was pushed aside when he tried to comfort the other. 

“Don’t call me that. No one calls me that any more,” his voice was flat, not too different from Time when he was losing patience when asked about a simple concept. A tinge of black flashed on his eyes, but it was so brief that Mastermind thought he imagined it. “It’s Esper.”

Esper. The name felt foreign on his tongue when Mastermind repeated it to himself under his breath. It didn’t sound remotely like Time at all, but what was he expecting when he also changed his title to Mastermind not too long ago? He couldn’t be calling Esper out on something as petty as that. He bit his lip down, but he saw his counterpart’s eyes widen in response to the visible hurt on his face. 

Esper moved his lips, but no words formed. He threw Mastermind a blank expression, but his eyes didn’t match, wavering between emotions that made it hard to read what was on his mind. Under his shirt was his stomach wrapped in bandages that had to be changed every few hours along with medication. He stared longer than usual whenever the medicine was within his view. Mastermind couldn’t help but wonder if Esper still had to take the potions Echo used to prescribe to him as a tracer. 

Esper broke the silence with a quiet sigh with an attempt to change the subject. “You look different,” he stared at his counterpart, eyes scanning over to see the vest and the hooded jacket Mastermind had on. 

“You look different too,” Mastermind said. 

“I know,” he thought he heard regret in Esper’s voice. “I’m sorry.” 

Despite being months apart, it was surreal to believe that Esper was here. He wasn’t sure what to tell the time traveler. Welcome back? I miss you? All of those phrases sounded generic and pathetic in his mind. He was never good at words, at least when talking about his emotions. Neither of them were, it seemed, because Esper had yet to say anything that suggested that they once knew each other aside from his last statement. 

The sound of static buzzed from below and pulled Mastermind’s attention away when he felt something nudge against his leg. Looking down to see what it was, Apocalypse approached him with a soft meow and came up to rub its head under his hand. Mastermind patted it on the head before scratching behind the ears and saw that the cat cube was running low on battery because its meows were quiet. 

“Apocalypse?” Esper asked. 

“Yeah,” Mastermind smiled when the cat cube purred. 

“Huh…the other Mastermind had one too,” Esper mused.

“The other?” Mastermind echoed.

Esper’s cheeks turned pink with embarrassment ( _If his blood was a mix of black tart, how did that work?_ Mastermind wondered.), looked down at his lap and twiddled his thumbs. 

“I ran into others like us,” Esper admitted. “They act like us, and yet they’re not exactly us. Their personalities are sometimes different and even their fighting styles are different.”

“So…there’s another Esper too?” He tried to imagine two Espers, but all he could see were them crawling out of a portal and cackling something about time and equations. 

“…what’s going through your mind?” Esper gave him a funny look. “Are you thinking of something weird again?”

Mastermind coughed to cover his nervous laugh, a part of him tempted to humor his counterpart. He was going to have a hard time mentally shaking that image off. But Esper made it sound like he had met multiple versions of themselves, which was a definite possibility with his abilities. 

“How do I know you’re my Esper?” He took Esper by the hand and rubbed his thumbs over the other’s palm for a reaction. If Time was pale, then Esper was stark white. His skin was almost transparent, in which Mastermind could see his veins running through when pressing his fingers over his hands. 

Esper frowned at his question, but didn’t pull himself away from his touch and whispered, “I’m still me.”

* * *

Mastermind buried his face and ran his hands through his hair, gripping the roots and twisting the strands into knots before undoing them with a soft sigh. Why was he so bad at talking to people? He found himself sitting on the floor of Time’s room again. The researcher closed his eyes tight and rested his head against the wall behind him. He wasn’t ready to go back outside to find Esper and explain himself. It wasn’t fair to throw a hard question at the time traveler when he was still in the middle of recovery. But still, although he was aware of alternative universes thanks to Time, he never questioned the possibilities until Esper brought it up. Would it matter if this was his Esper since they were all the same person anyway?

The room was warm when he opened his eyes again. In front of him was the damn piano again. For all the dust it gathered, it still looked beautiful under the sun’s glow peeking through the windows. It was like it was mocking him as a reminder that he and Time never progressed far enough to play a full song. 

No longer caring about how dirty it was, Mastermind stood up to take a seat on the dusty chair and placed his hands over the keyboard, careful not to breathe in too much dust. No longer accustomed to the pressure of the keys, Mastermind felt awkward when he pressed on them. He jolted in his seat a little when the notes came out louder than what he was used to. He tried again, but with less pressure to the keys. The researcher tried a couple of scales and ran his fingers across the keyboard. His fingers felt stiff from months of neglecting practice. 

Mastermind then took his index fingers and played a couple of notes on the far sides of the keyboard. He played a couple of chords when a finger pressed on the wrong key, the sound clashed against his ears and made him cringe. 

He pressed his foot on the soft petal as he raced through the keyboard with exhilaration. Although there was no audience, his heart soared as he played, caught up in the music and for a moment forgot about everything. It felt like nothing else existed except himself and the piano. It almost felt like Time was beside him like when they were tracers, fiddling around with the piano and figuring out how to play a new piece. He came to an abrupt stop when he heard Esper’s voice. 

“You know how to play?” 

“A little,” Mastermind turned to face him. “You?” 

“I practice as much as you do.” Esper wiped through a thick layer of dust on the piano and rubbed his fingers. The time traveler scanned the room to see a dusty bed and furniture before teasing, “A messy room? How unlike you.” 

Mastermind felt his face turn warm and uttered, “I was in the middle of cleaning it!”

He fought every ounce of control in himself to stop from wanting to smack Esper when the other giggled. The time traveler laughed so hard that his sclera flashed black for a few moments before he forced it back to white. When did Esper learn to do that? Esper sealed his lips tight, but his lips were spread too wide to fool anyone that he wasn’t laughing. 

“Want to give it a try?” Mastermind asked when he noticed that Esper was still looking at the piano. 

“I don’t remember much,” he mumbled after calming himself down. 

“I don’t either.” Mastermind moved to the side of the bench to make room and gestured to the other to join him. “Let’s learn together.”

Esper’s eyes widened at the invitation and pointed at himself. _Me?_ He awkwardly walked to join Mastermind at the bench, careful not to sit too close and gripped the bench with his left hand. His attention moved over to the music sheets on the stand and back to Mastermind. 

Seeing Esper’s confusion at the mess of music notes, Mastermind gently placed his hands over Esper’s. _Still the same_ , Mastermind didn’t miss the blush appearing on Esper’s cheeks and smiled. 


	8. When He Smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being Grace Grenore’s son means seeing a part of her every time Mad Paradox looks at himself in the mirror. The resemblance becomes more apparent when he sees Dominator smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

A deafening silence welcomes him in its arms with only the sound of his breathes rising in time to the clock in the room. His body ached when he stretched his legs to discover they couldn’t reach the end of the mattress. With his head resting in a bundle of pillows, it took Paradox a moment to realize his body was small again when his tiny hands curled into tiny fists. 

His hands were cold and sweaty when he grabbed the blankets from underneath, turning sideways to stretch his back and neck with a crack. Paradox opened his eyes when someone pressed their palm against his temples. The contact was brief, but it was enough for him to feel his forehead burning in contrast to their icy touch.

His heart froze when he heard a soft voice utter, “He’s still running a fever.”

There was delicacy in their words, chosen with care as if afraid to speak. At last, he found an ounce of bravery and peeked from under the layer of blankets to see a tall figure clad in white, sitting at the edge of his bed. Silver hair fell over their pale face, soft features laced with a familiar tranquility.

Opened shutters blinded his eyes when he looked up, forcing them shut as he pulled the covers over his face to shield himself from the strong rays. It was hard to see the figure’s face with the light hindering his vision, but there was a frown tugging down their lips. Their face caught Paradox off guard because he recognized their distraught. 

“You should be asleep.” They blinked long eyelashes, like white feathers at the end of the pens Asker never let him touch. “Did I wake you up?”

Paradox shook his head.

Their lips moved, but he didn’t hear them. They were still when Paradox sat up and crawled over to their lap to scrutinize them. Their eyes widened for a brief moment, only to shrink back to gaze at the time traveler with a trace of sadness. It was an expression he recognized, one they worked to hide, but there was always a hint of it when he was with them. 

“Mother,” he sobbed.

The years he spent away from her, scrambling to uncover every book and document he could get his hands on before Dynamo lost power and forced him to leave the Nasod library. After everything she had done for him, the least he could do was spare her from her terrible fate. When that wasn’t enough, he worked with low lives like Wally to unlock the codes he thought would help him go back.

Had his efforts at last borne fruit? Or did the Goddess exist as that stupid priest claimed and gave him mercy? Dignity be damned, perhaps he would succumb to his wishes and accept that sort of pity. Could it really be her? 

Something caught up in his throat, forcing it down in a hard swallow that didn’t make it any easier with his body running hot. He was running a high temperature. There was confusion overwhelming the time traveler when his mind was clouded by a million thoughts and emotions. 

Paradox looked up in shock when they wiped his cheeks with a lavender colored handkerchief, pulling it away to give him a soft smile. When did he start crying? His mind grew numb as more tears fell, unable to stop. 

Covering his face, he burst into tears, gripping their white jacket. They smelled like fresh ironed clothes and detergent, a distinctive scent of pine leaves and coffee on their clothes when Paradox buried his face into their neck. There was an awkward pat on his back with an augmented pause before they decided to pull him into a hug.

Their familiar warmth welcomed him home, but there was something off putting about it he couldn’t place his finger on. No matter how he tried to reassure himself it was her, there was self doubt when Paradox clung to them, afraid they would slip away like the mist in his mind that clouded his judgement. He was awake, but drowsiness lingered. Paradox tried wiping his tears away, ignoring how red his face was going to be.

There was a rough, bumpy texture when he pressed his lips on their neck, a leathery complexion that made Paradox stop breathing. The scar on their neck peeked underneath the turtleneck their wore to hide it. When he placed his hands on their chest, he was greeted with a flat surface, shoulders too broad to belong to Mother even if he was smaller. He pulled his head away to see eyes mirroring his, pupils too bright to be organic, but made of artificial lens and wires.

“You’re not her,” Paradox breathed. 

* * *

In what should have been rage and feelings of betrayal, there was a gap in his chest when Paradox came to the realization. His body shook, shame replaced the shock when he identified the figure to be Dominator. What he had was a mirror of himself, what could have been him, in another timeline perhaps. There was a bitter aftertaste in thinking of his counterpart as another. There was no turning back with what he had done to his own body, or what was left of it anyway. 

“Did you enjoy the show?” Paradox coughed, “Did I entertain you long enough?”

Was the universe that cruel to toy with his emotions, or was he so demented that he couldn’t tell the difference between Mother and his counterpart? A cruel laugh escaped from his lips as his body shuttered, Dominator’s eyes growing big when his body distorted and rearranged themselves into his true form. Sharp nails dug into Dominator’s skin with Paradox clinging onto him. 

“If you mean crying for her in your sleep, no.” Dominator said with a tight smile, “I can hear your wails from my lab.” 

Dominator was careful not to touch the time traveler and worked to gently pull him off, but with little success. If Paradox was angry at him, which was reasonable for him, was he hoping to get some blood out of Dominator? There was a surprising lack of tearing so far.

Paradox ignored the obvious opening to lash back at Dominator, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of admitting his own shortcomings. So what if he cried in his sleep and bothered the scientist? Good! That’s what the asshole got for pretending to be Mother! Paradox fumed when Dominator looked down at him and had that look on his face, the one reserved for pity. He didn’t need pity from himself! 

“If you have enough energy to be mad at me, then you don’t need me, right?” Dominator pretended like having extra weight on him wasn’t an inconvenience and checked Dynamo for the time. “I told Lusa you didn’t need that much medicine…”

That explained the drowsiness. It was like his limbs were made out of iron when he tried lifting them to pull himself apart from his counterpart. His long hair fanned down his back and whipped Dominator in the face when he turned his head around. They were in his room across from Bringer’s room. 

Paradox asked, “How long was I out?”

“A couple of days,” Dominator replied with a click of the tongue, an expression of distaste. “I see you overworked yourself again. You’re worse than I am.”

The time traveler chuckled, “Funny you say that, considering you need people reminding you to eat or sleep.”

Paradox studied Dominator’s face with scrutiny when he identified the bags under the other’s eyes. His sleeping habits were as bad as they were when he was Mastermind, where falling asleep at his desk was the norm. Doom Bringer was the only one among the three of them to have a regular sleep schedule. 

Dominator’s face turned red, coughing to cover up his embarrassment, but who was he fooling? It was cute how easy it was to make the other fluster like a teenager. 

“Why did you call me Mother?”

Of course the nerd couldn’t ignore the impulse to ask. Always full of questions, never learning when to keep them to himself. When he looked at Dominator, there were no hints of pity or mockery, but rather, there was curiosity. Paradox wasn’t as quick to give the scientist an immediate answer.

“You have her smile.” Paradox’s voice drifted away with his initial rage, fading away as quick as it came. 

Dominator blinked in surprise by his answer, but there was understanding when he nodded. He touched his face at the sudden self consciousness of his facial features, touching his lips with delicacy. It had difficult to real his emotions when he traced his hand down his face before looking at Paradox again.

“I should leave,” Dominator said with hard pressed lips. “You should get rest before the medicine wears off.” 

“Stay with me,” Paradox shook his head. 

There was a misunderstanding. He wasn’t mad at Dominator any more. Being angry was tiring and a waste of energy, something he had discovered too late. The lines forming his body glowed white, his vision gone hazy as he turned back to his child form. He was still on Dominator’s lap, but he didn’t move, scared of himself when he at last found his voice. 

“Let me sleep off the medicine first before you give it to me again,” he said. 

How often did Dominator come by to administer his medicine if he knew when it would wear off? The ruffles in Dominator’s clothes and the cowlick sticking out of his roots weren’t from falling asleep at his desk, but from staying close to check on him. Mother wasn’t here, but he had someone watching over him. 

Even if it was momentary, he caught a glimpse of how peaceful Dominator looked when he closed his eyes with a gentle expression that was not unlike her’s. The time traveler nestled his head into Dominator’s shoulder and closed his eyes with a smile. Even if Dominator wasn’t her… he could live with his counterpart’s equally radiant smile.

* * *

“Is it working?” Bringer smirked when he was glared at by the scientist, “Am I not allowed to ask how you two are doing?”

“You gave him too much medicine,” Dominator said.

What did the damn brute want? Dominator glared at Bringer, whose lips were curled up at the scene of what looked like a child curled up with their parent. It wasn’t that he hated the brawler, or else he never would have agreed to live with him, but there was something irritating about Bringer catching him at a vulnerable moment. It made him feel self conscious, embarrassed to admit he wasn’t the most emotionally opened person even when it was with people he trusted. He could already imagine Bringer being smug about him giving in to his emotions for acting motherly, or whatever parental term his counterparts insisted he was.

There were no objections from when Dominator accused him, but blood rushed to his face and tinted his cheeks pink. Abashed, his eyes averted to Paradox, who only stirred to turn his face into the pillows at the sound of their voices. He had one hand on the bed to support his weight when he leaned over to see Paradox’s head poking out of the covers. 

“It hit him that hard?” Bringer with a hand at the back of his neck, “Didn’t mean to do that.”

Dominator shook his head, “He just needs to sleep it off.”

Was his face feminine enough to be seen as Mother or was it the medicine hindering Paradox’s perception on things? A deep frown formed on Dominator’s features at the idea of being mistaken as a woman. He felt his face, unsure on how to feel about being told that he looked like her. At least he didn’t look like Asker, he scowled at the memory of the man who called himself Father.

“You’ve been glaring at the wall like it stole your coffee,” Bringer cocked his head to the side. “What’s on your mind?”

His comment made Dominator look up in alarm, not too different from a phoru in the face of a Panzer Buster. While he had impulsive tendencies and came off as aloof or standoffish, it was moments like this that caught Dominator off guard and reminded the scientist that Bringer was no fool. Bringer’s lips were pressed into a hard line; there was weight in his words. His eyes glowed when he gazed at Dominator. There was no pressure for an immediate answer, but there was a sense of urgency and concern when Bringer placed his hand on Dominator’s shoulder.

“You’ve done more than enough,” Bringer’s voice was gentle. “I can take over from here. I promise I’ll give him less next time.”

“He thought I was Mother,” Dominator blurted.

“You do have nice eyelashes,” he teased.

“Shut up,” Dominator snapped, but grinned. “And you have my eyes.”

“Narcissist,” he laughed. “Does it bother you?”

Dominator thought he could put his past behind him at last after figuring out what he wanted. It was natural to miss someone who loved them in the past, but there was no point in staying locked in a past that wouldn’t come back. With Paradox living among them, it became clear that the time traveler wasn’t one to forget or let go of things he cared about, Mother included. Like it or not, finding Mother was something Paradox wanted and that wasn’t about to change no matter how hard Dominator wanted him to.

“I think it means I need to stop babying him,” Dominator sighed. The number of times Paradox snuck into his room to sleep in his bed was enough to have the scientist no longer question the sound of a portal opening to his room at night.

Bringer pushed Paradox’s bangs to the side to see his sleeping face. “You guys look comfortable.”

There was an awkward silence before Dominator said with reluctance, “He’s making it hard to move…”

For someone his size, Paradox was heavier than he looked. It was impossible push the time traveler away without disturbing him. He mumbled their names in the same breath, a tiny figure in a sea of whites and violets from the blankets tucked under the mattress to keep him warm. 

“Of course,” Bringer chuckled when he stood up to leave. “I’ll be in the training room if you need me.”

Paradox rested his head on the pillows propped against the bed frame with Dominator lying down beside him, the time traveler huddled beneath the blankets that rose with each rising breath. It was almost alarming how still he was when asleep. He hugged Dominator’s arm with the prominent frown from the time he was awake was replaced by a sleepy smile. After all that fight he put up, seeing the time traveler relaxed was a relief when Dominator placed his hand on Paradox’s temple to see that it was still warm.

“You’re a real pain,” Dominator sighed at Paradox’s sleeping form. “Hurry up and get better so I can get back to work.”

The time traveler didn’t reply, not that he was expecting one. If Paradox wasn’t sick, he was sure the literal man child would have cackled at his statement and agree with him. Troublesome as he may be, he and Bringer may be the closest thing he had to family. 


	9. Sweet Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mad Paradox finds peace in being with Dominator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

Paradox woke up to muffled meows. He forced his eyes open as far as anyone wanted to at six in the morning in search for Apocalypse. The cat cube was nowhere to the be seen, but he was sure it was lurking somewhere in the house. If he caught the damn thing stuck in the laundry machine again if he was to pull himself out of bed… Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Why didn’t Dominator spend more time fixing that glitch instead of working on his toys? 

Birds chirped from outside to signal for a new day and the sun was beginning to peek behind the horizon line, eager to blind the man when he wanted to see it least. It was cozy snuggling between blankets and shielding him from the freezing room. His long hair tangled with his limbs between the blankets and another man nestled beside him.

White hair obscured much of Dominator’s face with a single strand of hair stood up from his roots. Wrapping his arms around Paradox’s waist, the researcher drooled with a sleepy smile. It tugged Paradox’s heartstrings in the strangest way in seeing the other in blissful peace with himself, even if he was unconscious.

Paradox leaned over and brushed his lips over Dominator’s forehead before burying his face into the other’s shoulder. Dominator smelled of mint and fresh soap, a hint of coffee from last night until forced to bed by the time traveler. Their fingers interlocked as Paradox curled up to relish the other’s warmth. 

With Dominator squished between him and the blankets, there wasn’t a lot of room for Paradox to leave without waking up the researcher. Not that it was a problem. Being next to his counterpart gave him something to hold onto and made it almost easy to ignore the occasional static emitted from himself when parts of his body glitched out. Despite his unstableness, Dominator reached out for him and let him in with no disgust. The other Dominators…well, it’s been awhile since Paradox encountered with any of them. 

“Para?” Dominator’s voice cut the silence between them. The researcher mouthed incohesive words before yawning and leaning his head further back into his pillows.

Huh? Dominator was talking in his sleep. He spoke so clearly that one could have mistaken him to be awake if not by the soft snores following his call for Paradox. His scar poked from behind his clothes, a poignant marking slashed across his neck and left Paradox feeling nauseous thinking about its origins.

“I’m here,” Paradox held his hand. Dominator wasn’t awake, but his eyelids moved in response to his voice. He played with Dominator hair, running his hand through the other’s roots.

“Don’t eat all the cake without me,” Dominator mumbled.

Paradox stifled a laugh for it to come out as an unattractive snort. Pressing his finger against his lips to silent himself, he leaned over to kiss the top of Dominator’s head.

“I won’t,” Paradox chuckled. “Good night, Domi.”

He rested his head against Dominator’s shoulder and closed his eyes. They can sleep for another few hours. 


End file.
